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Here are a couple of small bite-sized updates from Japan, suitable for snacking.

First, here’s a sprite sheet that NIGORO posted on their La Mulana Wii blog. I dunno, I really like looking at stuff like this.

Second, for you Pixel fans: he’s released a tiny new game that you can download from the front page of his website. It’s called Akantares (?) and the goal is to shoot your opponent five times. The gray orbs create gravity wells that bend your shots. That’s about it.

The first window asks for your name. There might be some multiplayer options, but I’m not sure. The AI is only so-so, but it’s still strangely fun to play. (Thanks, R. D. Ein, for the heads-up.)

Update: The lovable, huggable Shih Tzu was kind enough to post a translation in the comments. Apparently, the second window is a lobby that lets you connect to other players via the web. Making this game a lot more interesting, indeed.

Okay, that’s it – see ya! Continue reading

A record number (306) of entries to the Main Competition is, not surprisingly, followed by a record number of entries to the student competition. This year there were 193 games submitted by students to the IGF! I haven’t heard of many of the entries before, but they sound interesting – I’m seeing a lot of ideas and themes that are very rarely touched upon in gaming.

The IGF front page reminds us that previous student winners include Narbacular Drop (which became Portal), The Misadventures Of P.B. Winterbottom, The Blob, and Jenova Chen’s Cloud. Fine company to be with, indeed. Congratulations to all the student entrants! Continue reading

[Now that the Independent Games Festival has a proper update blog on its front page [RSS feed!], myself and the other organizers will be updating monthly with relevant info on previous winners, events, judges, etc - here's the first of those.]

In the run-up to this year's Independent Games Festival deadlines this November, we thought it might be a good idea to update periodically with the latest news on submissions, previous winners, judging, relevant events, and so on.

IGF Success Stories

Firstly, I just wanted to highlight some notable successes from previous Independent Games Festival winners, showing the power of indie games in today's market. For starters, The Behemoth's 2007 double IGF award winner Castle Crashers for Xbox Live Arcade recently reached 1 million individual leaderboard entries, making it one of the most-played XBLA titles of all time - congratulations to them. Continue reading